{"id":162,"date":"2019-02-02T01:21:37","date_gmt":"2019-02-02T01:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/populareducation.in\/loksamvad\/?post_type=article&p=162"},"modified":"2019-02-02T01:21:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-02T01:21:37","slug":"social-media-giants-plan-push-back-on-indias-new-regulations","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"http:\/\/populareducation.in\/loksamvad\/article\/social-media-giants-plan-push-back-on-indias-new-regulations\/","title":{"rendered":"Social media giants plan push-back on India’s new regulations"},"content":{"rendered":"Reuters<\/strong>: Global social media and technology giants are gearing up to fight sweeping new rules proposed by the Indian government that would require them to actively regulate content in one of the world\u2019s biggest Internet markets, sources close to the matter told Reuters.\r\n\r\nThe rules, proposed by the Information Technology ministry on Christmas Eve, would compel platforms such as Facebook, its messaging service WhatsApp and Twitter to remove unlawful content, such as anything that affected the \u201csovereignty and integrity of India\u201d. This had to be done within 24 hours, the rules proposed.\r\n\r\nThe proposal, which caught many holidaying industry executives off guard, is open for public comment until Jan. 31. It will then be adopted as law, with or without changes.\r\n\r\nThe move comes ahead of India\u2019s national election due by May and amid rising worries that activists could misuse social media, especially the WhatsApp messaging service, to spread fake news and sway voters.\r\n\r\nIndustry executives and civil rights activists say the rules smack of censorship and could be used by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to increase surveillance and crack down on dissent. Social media firms have long battled efforts by governments around the world to hold them responsible for what users post on their platforms.\r\n\r\nU.S. and India lobby groups, representing Facebook and other companies, have sought legal opinions from law firms on the impact of the federal proposal, and have started working on drafting objections to be filed with the IT ministry, four sources in the sector said.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe companies can\u2019t take this lying down. We are all concerned, it\u2019s fundamental to how these platforms are governed,\u201d said an executive at a global social media company.\r\n\r\nAn estimated half a billion people in India have access to the Internet. Facebook has about 300 million users in the country and WhatsApp has more than 200 million. Tens of millions of Indians use Twitter.\r\n\r\nThe new rules, the sources said, would put the privacy of users at risk and raise costs by requiring onerous round-the-clock monitoring of online content.\r\n\r\nInternet firm Mozilla said last week the proposal was a \u201cblunt and disproportionate\u201d solution to the problem of harmful content online, and one which could lead to over-censorship and \u201cchill free expression\u201d.\r\n\r\nThe IT ministry has said the proposal was aimed at only making social media safer. \u201cThis is not an effort to curb freedom of speech, or (impose) censorship,\u201d Gopalakrishnan S., a joint secretary at India\u2019s IT ministry said on Saturday when the ministry ran a #SaferSocialMedia campaign on Twitter.\r\n\r\nFacebook and WhatsApp declined to comment.\r\n\r\nA Twitter spokesperson said the company continues to engage with the IT Ministry and civil society on the proposed rules.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis will be like a sword hanging on technology companies,\u201d said Nikhil Narendran, a partner specializing in technology law at Indian law firm Trilegal.\r\n\r\nTIGHT REGULATIONS<\/strong>\r\n\r\nSuch regulations are not unique to India. Vietnam has asked tech companies to open local offices and store data domestically, while Australia\u2019s parliament has passed a bill to force companies to give police access to encrypted data. Germany requires social media companies to remove illegal hate speech within 24 hours or face fines.\r\n\r\nNevertheless, the proposal would further strain relations between India and global technology firms. They have been at odds since last year due to federal proposals requiring them to store more user data locally to better assist legal investigations.\r\n\r\nThe new rules, called \u201cintermediary guidelines\u201d, also propose requiring companies with more than 5 million users in India to have a local office and a nodal officer for \u201c24×7 coordination with law enforcement\u201d.\r\n\r\nWhen asked by a government agency or through a court order, companies should within 24 hours \u201cremove or disable access\u201d to \u201cunlawful\u201d content, they stipulate.\r\n\r\nThe rules also mandate companies to reveal the origin of a message when asked, which if enforced would deal a blow to WhatsApp which boasts of end-to-end encryption to protect user privacy. WhatsApp has battled criticism after fake messages about child kidnap gangs on its platform sparked mob lynchings in India last year.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou have created a monster, you should have the ability to control the monster,\u201d a senior government official said, referring to WhatsApp.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe remain flexible in principle (to suggestions), but we definitely want them to be more accountable, especially the big companies,\u201d the official said.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reuters: Global social media and technology giants are gearing up to fight sweeping new rules proposed by the Indian government that would require them to actively regulate content in one of the world\u2019s biggest Internet markets, sources close to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"issuem_issue":[6],"class_list":["post-162","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","issuem_issue-december-2018","entry","no-media"],"yoast_head":"\nSocial media giants plan push-back on India's new regulations - Lok Samvad<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/populareducation.in\/loksamvad\/article\/social-media-giants-plan-push-back-on-indias-new-regulations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Social media giants plan push-back on India's new regulations - 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